The website told me to visit the closest Samsung Service Center, they won't just send you a replacement battery. So I drive into town to go there. The guy in the shop also is aware of the problem and the replacement policy. But he doesn't have any replacement batteries, nor can he tell me when he'll get them. In addition to that he demands a proof of purchase, but of course I haven't bought the phone in that shop, and didn't even think I needed to take that proof with me. What more proof than the swollen original battery does Samsung need?

So I went home and looked on the internet again. A third-party replacement battery for the Samsung Galaxy S4 is $13.99 at Amazon. That is probably less than what it cost me to drive into town. And the battery is delivered to my home and soon, instead of me having to go to the Samsung Service Center repeatedly in the hope they get a battery in one day.

Dear Samsung, your poor customer service might have saved you from having to replace my battery, but you lost a customer in the process.

Shame on Samsung for making you suffer for their mistake. Let me give you a counter story of a company who does it right:

A couple of years back I bought a Logitech wireless keyboard & mouse set. Some months later the mouse developed a fault and I contacted Logitech customer support about it. After a short exchange of emails they determined it couldn't be fixed and would have to be replaced. They immediately offered to post out a replacement keyboard & mouse set to me. I wasn't asked for proof of purchase they just needed the serial number off my product. I was worried about the postage cost of shipping my faulty product back but they said - "don't worry just cut the connector off the keyboard and ship that in a small envelope". Best of all they posted the replacement immediately even before they got my returned connector so my downtime was the absolute minimum.

Needless to say I have bought several other Logitech products since then.

I had the same with Apple in the UK. The battery was bulging and recalled, but they haven't informed the UK shops. Showing them the US recall site about exploding batteries didn't help. Same behaviour for burned chargers.